US does have “boots on the ground” in Iraq, sort of

To use that line from Facebook’s relationship status,

“It’s complicated.”

ABC News is reporting that some US troops along with aid workers landed for a brief period on Mount Sinjar in Iraq where thousands of Yazidis are stranded and facing starvation and near-certain death if the Islamic State (IS) fighters can reach them. Why were they there? To assess the situation or as they say in the military world, do some “recon” and get some “intel.” Basically, they were scoping the area to see if a rescue mission was possible, I think.

And as I blogged earlier, the DOD has moved MV-22 Ospreys to Northern Iraq along with several Marines and dozens of special operators. That’s significant because the Marines and the SpOps guys are the only ones in the US armed forces who use the Osprey which is tilt-rotor aircraft (it takes off like a helicopter, the engines rotate and it turns into a plane. Autobots, transform!) The aircraft can hold around 30 people in a combat load so in theory, it could carry more civilians who are just packed in there.

Combine that with the CH-47s that are there via the Brits and the United States and you have a lot of quick transportation assets.

But….

Islamic State might not have the ability to shoot down the F/A-18 Super Hornets that are bombing them but they do have vehicle mounted AA weaponry that could take down the Osprey or a Chinook which could lead to an increased US involvement. You could also see a Banzai-style charge. They are fanatical religious militants who might view a death in battle as a good thing. I am not there, so I don’t know for sure.

Either way, you will need US Search and Rescue crews on standby. You’ll see the Marines or the Special Ops guys ready to provide security. And you might need CAS from either the Hornets or perhaps A-10s or Apaches which could be brought to bear either from nearby airfields or nations.

Officially, that’s what the additional troops are there for, to assess the risk, the situation on the ground and to report back to the higher-ups. So what now, well, the US isn’t operating in a vacuum. Remember, how al-Maliki, the embattled prime minister (sort of) who is trying to hold onto power even as the president appointed a new person and both the US and Iran have called from him to step down.

So it is complicated but it is amazing on one level. IS has done something that I didn’t think I’d see — united the various faction in Iraq and provided a common foe for the Kurds, Iran, Saudis and United States to focus on. Wow. Didn’t see that coming. So on one level, there is hope in the sense that maybe people are tired of extremism. On the other hand, the US needs to take the lead in this.

I realize that troops on the ground and another year or 10 of being in Iraq isn’t a good move for our nation but we need to be more involved than we were in Libya and in Syria, both areas that have devolved into anarchy and sectarian bloodbaths. The next week or so should be interesting. stay tuned.

Author: Andy Kravetz

Andy Kravetz has spent most of the past 16 years covering the area's legal system as well as the military. in that time, he's crawled in the mud, flown in transport planes, and written about a man prosecuted for terrorism. This blog will reflect all those interests and then some.
View all posts by Andy Kravetz